STOKE and Torbay Police FC got the new season underway with a trip to Sidmouth on Saturday, August 3.

Goals from Adam Reda-Khalaf and Ben Aldous had Stoke ahead at the break but a dominant second-half display from the hosts decided the game and secured them the three points.

The first home game of the campaign at Broadley Lane saw Teignmouth AFC visit on Tuesday, August 6.

Looking at the bigger picture of this whole season though and Stoke manager Sam Biscoe described the troubles of pre-season.

“Preparing this pre-season, we found it very difficult as a lot of teams at step five and step six are offering a lot of money for players! We had a few lads want to have a look which is fully understandable.”

Once these sorts of issues were ironed out though, “The end of pre-season was very strong, setting a style of play we would like to attempt to play.”

Last year, in the South West Peninsula Premier East League, SGTP finished in 13th out of 17 teams, collating points at exactly one per match.

Their tally of 32pts was less than the team above, Torrington FC, who actually beat Stoke 2-0 on the last day.

Playing so many games in such a short period of time to make up for the cancellations earlier in the calendar clearly had an impact with the last five games, played in the space of just a few weeks, all ending in defeat.

Biscoe is intent on pushing this group forward and they have “Set some team goals this season”, with the primary one being “to finish in the top six”.

The aforementioned difficulties with clubs at higher levels offering lucrative amounts of money didn’t hold back the club when it came to the transfer window.

In the words of the boss, they “Have managed to keep a strong team and added a few, Chris Wearing [is an] experienced goalkeeper, Tom Dunlop [is] an experienced centre back, Jamie Down [is an] experienced centre midfielder and a player called Ian Hildreth who's played [at] a higher standard.”

Finding that perfect blend between youth and experience, securing the energy and the know-how to keep a group ticking over throughout a whole season, is often key at this level of football.

Biscoe’s three words to describe his squad were “Young, intelligent and experienced” which certainly bodes well on that front with the games coming thick and fast already.

Coming up for the Bees in August after their first two fixtures are trips to Cullompton and Newton Abbot Spurs on the 17th and the 27th respectively.

On their home turf, Okehampton (10th) and Elburton Villa (31st) will come to town, making it a total of six league outings in the opening month of the new season.